Limbo
by renzie17
Summary: Where it isn't the past, the present or the future anymore, they find each other. For Zutara Week 2015 Day 4: Rue!


NOTE: Set post-LoK. ENJOY! :)

 **Zutara Week 2015 Day 4: Rue**

 **LIMBO**

"You waited for me." Those were her first words when she strode into his scene as he sat on a garden, tea prepared before him on a table surrounded by trees. The sun shone in the twilight emitting reds, pinks and oranges on the blue canvas that was the sky. The moon was already up, high where the sun had crossed, however yet to shine as bright.

Zuko looked up and smiled, gesturing her to come and sit beside him and have some tea he had finally perfected after years of good tea-making advice from his uncle. Katara chuckled and took her seat.

They sat in silence. It was peaceful as birds flew high, headed west. Some lingered, bathing in the warmth of the sun before the red ball of fire moved on.

"Look at you, all young again!" She laughed, a sound he welcomed happily. He smiled.

"Like you're not looking any younger."

And she was. They both were, it seemed, 25. Back when her eyes shined brightest; though it never seemed to have lost that shine. Back when he stood tallest, looking like nothing could stop him.

It was odd, they thought together. And they did not know where they were. They didn't know how much time has passed since they last spoke, Zuko himself did not know how much time he spent waiting for her at that same spot.

And so they talked. They talked about life and love and everything in between. They talked about their families, the world they left, and the world beyond. They reminisced the good and the bad.

That was when he found her cupping his face, something she had done back. Way back. Back when there was a chaos that lasted a hundred years. Back when he was making the toughest decisions of his life, decisions even harder than the ones he had made as Firelord.

She had offered to heal him, patch things up for him, change his destiny. And often in his lifetime had he wondered what that would have changed, what that would have meant for him—for them.

Zuko was sure he hadn't let anyone else touch his scar the way she had once done; he didn't think he had let anyone touch his scar before she had, even. He had let his wife, but only because they were married and he had given her the right to touch his face.

But Katara… No one else had touched his scar with the same amount of … he couldn't even put it into words. There were unsaid words on her hands that were transferred to him unlike anything actually verbalized: words that spoke through her eyes, through her hands. He couldn't believe he had betrayed her, betrayed all of them.

His thoughts wandered as one of his longest friends touched his scar once more and the bluest of eyes bore into his golden ones. She smiled.

He had seen her grow, seen how she wielded the strength someone her age back then hadn't yet been blessed with. He had seen her bloom as a Panda Lily does once in its lifetime and continue to become even more beautiful as it blossoms. He had watched closely as she went through so many obstacles when they were younger, and even until the last moment.

Yet he had wondered once, a twenty-year-old man with power and wisdom on his side, what his feelings for her were. He had dismissed them as just a brother caring for his younger sister, although sometimes he would dream of her and her summery smiles, the light on her eyes reflecting the blue of the seven seas he had once sailed.

He would recount conversations he had with her before he tucked in for the night, smiling to himself when he remembered her saying something nice, sweet or funny. He would look forward to meeting his friends again and unconsciously think of her face first thing.

"It's been some ride," he heard her say beside him as she put down her hand from his scar, "hasn't it?"

"It has," he replied. And he knew the time was almost up. They had to move on. But a part of him didn't want to. A part of him wanted to spend more time with her there in that place—wherever they were—more time to just be with her.

More time. He needed more time. A lot of time was already lost the moment they started growing up and taking on their own responsibilities. A lot of time he could have had with her. A lot of things they could have shared.

He wasn't sure if he regretted anything he had done in his life, or anything he hadn't. He had had a lovely family with his wife and his beautiful daughter who now ruled over the Fire Nation as he once had. He had been blessed with a grandson who looked just like him in his youth and who governed with honor as he had once dreamed his descendants would. His life had been all he hadn't expected it to be as the boy of sixteen who scoured the world in search for his honor: a badge he didn't have to look too far for, a badge he had never even lost. His life had been so much more.

He looked at her and her face seemed to have aged back several years younger, with a faraway look in her eyes that he could almost see the things she was seeing: her youth, the people she cared for, the people she loved, the people she lost. He could just see her thinking of her mother whom had sacrificed herself for Katara, the mirth in her expression giving away the excitement in the promise of seeing the woman soon. He could imagine she was thinking of Aang, the man she loved in this lifetime. He could imagine she was thinking of her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren she left in the world below.

He looked at her and thought she could never have rued the life she had lived. And even if she had loved him once—a thought that popped up in his mind again after decades and decades ago—she wouldn't have regretted anything either. Her life had been as colorful as his, if not more.

But he could never regret the life he lived either, he thought. He could never regret his family, his children. He could never regret the good things he's made possible for his people, he could never regret the times he spent with his friends and loved ones, the lessons he picked up and the words he let go of.

"If there's one thing I regret, Zuko," she muttered beside him as the light around them seemed to have darkened just a bit, "It's being the last one to leave.

"It always hurts to see the people I spent my entire life with go one by one. It's the grief I regret each time."

He swallowed and took her hands in his. She looked at him and she smiled bitterly. He wanted to tell her it was okay and that he was there and he had waited for her, but his thoughts were flying as he gazed into her blue eyes.

He didn't regret anything, but Zuko wondered what would have happened if he had another chance to meet a woman as beautiful and strong and kindhearted as Katara. Many times in his life had he been given second, even third chances—chances that saved him over and over again. And another chance was what he craved that moment, a promise of another life; this time with her.

"I waited for you."

His words were answered in silence and suddenly it was all clear in her eyes. He looked at them and saw them widen and look down at their hands joined on the table. She clenched his hands tighter in hers.

"I don't regret my life, Zuko," she said, her eyes still looking at their hands as she struggled to find words. "But I did wonder about you."

Zuko never felt younger. He straightened his back and focused on her, just Katara and the nostalgic atmosphere in the words she said.

"You were always such a warm person to be with; a great friend and confidant. I wondered about you a lot when we were kids—"

"I did, too," he cut her off and she looked at him, her beautiful smile reaching the brightness of her eyes, a touch of red dusting her cheeks. And then they knew where they stood and why one waited for the other.

And that if their roles were reversed, she'd have waited for him too.

"You think we'd get another chance?" Katara asked him carefully.

"It wouldn't hurt to try," he replied.

Together they stood up and moved on. To where? They had yet to find out.

\- o -

NOTE: Yaay! Thanks for reading! I posted this one before day 3: Clandestine because I haven't really finished that one yet. /sobs/ This story's actually the first one I finished for Zutara Week heh. I'm working on day 3, though! It takes after day 2: Vigil so I hope you look forward to it! :D

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you liked it! If review and tell me what you think, that'd be awesome! :)


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